Travis Touch Pocket Translator

Pros

Wide Variety of Languages.Two way communication. Voice prompted translation. Works with mobile data and can be used as hotspot. A full day's worth of battery life. Fits in your pocket!

Cons

Not all languages offer verbal support

Bottom Line

While anyone could dream of speaking multiple languages with perfect fluency, the reality is a bit more difficult, however, the Travis Touch translator does a phenomenal job in coming close to a universal translator and making it accessible for those who'll be in need of it.

Feb. 18, 2019

Having been born and raised in Dubai, I didn’t really pick up on my mother tongue and there’s over 300 languages from India alone, now for what its worth almost everyone speaks English and you’ll have no trouble travelling to most places. The beauty of any travel comes with learning any new culture and language plays a significant role but when you’re visiting a place with limited knowledge and trying to strike up a conversation with the local populace.

Now you have a few options, get a guide to help translate, google translate or the Travis Touch. A universal translator that I happened to use and slowly fall in love with. The Travis touch works with the intent that you’ll be able to have a discernable conversation without finding the need to ask if they speak English. The translator works offline and has a few languages stored in its memory but it can also work with a SIM or WiFi signal that connects to a language database that works with real translators. Travis also lets you become a translator to contribute to the database if you so choose.

The pocket-sized device weighs less than a kilo. It’s android powered. It’s got a matte black finish for easier grip, a 2.4” IPS touchscreen display and three command buttons. The speaker is embedded on top and the headphone and charging ports are below and it has wireless charging. It comes with a 2,500 mAh and gets a full days’ worth of battery.

You can use your voice to switch languages and what it does is that it will ask you to speak into the device while it outputs the translated text through speech for most of the languages. It does however show the text for languages that it can’t use text to speech for. The current database includes English, Chinese, Arabic, German, Spanish, Japanese and French to name a few. When you turn it on a message on screen appears, “Hello, I am Travis. With English being the default language of input.

I was quite surprised that the Travis Touch had a few regional languages I didn’t expect like Malayalam, Hindi and Gujarati. Malayalam in fact, it supports two way communication again that depends on the language so while you can show text to the person you’re trying to communicate to, it’s likely they won’t be able to explain it in the language that you understand. Though Travis is working on making them more accessible.

Given that the Travis touch is designed for short form communication, don’t expect to have deep insightful conversations ( you’re best reserved to learning the language over time.) However, it does help in getting around or asking for information especially when you’re travelling, you no longer have to nervously approach someone and try to find out about something while in a foreign environment

There are multiple tiers of the devices you can buy, it comes in black and white. It’s available to purchase locally for it is available via the Sharaf DG website as well as the Sharaf DG stores in the Abu Dhabi Mall and Dubai Mall at AED 899. It can also be purchased online through their store.

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About the Author

Kevin Sebastian is a passionate writer who lives and breathes on the internet. He started out as a Reddit lurker and eventually made his way to editorial. His curiosity for the region's burgeoning tech scene lead him to editorial positions in various tech publications managing content in technology and gaming. While Kevin is not writing or ranting about the gaming or tech industry, you can find him in far off deserts trying to practice his astrophotography, or in the city making documentaries. See Full Bio